• Torsten Sløk, Apollo's chief economist, says a US recession in 2025 is unlikely.
• The economy grew faster than expected in 2024, driven by strong consumer spending.
• Key risks for 2025 include tariffs, Nvidia earnings, and an inflation rebound driving rates higher.

Torsten Sløk, the chief economist at Apollo, said in a note on Monday that the probability of a US recession materializing in 2025 is 0%.

He released his top 12 risks to watch for global markets in 2025, and a significant economic downturn wasn't one of them.

2024 delivered yet another year of strong economic gains, building on the gains realized in 2023. US GDP is on track to grow by nearly 3% in 2024, and the economy has added about 2 million jobs.

Overall, most economists were taken by surprise. Many expected a slowdown in the economy heading into 2024. Instead, it accelerated.

"The US economy grew much faster than expected this year, supported by solid growth in consumer spending," Jan Hatzius, the top economist at Goldman Sachs, said in a note over the weekend.

So with no recession on the horizon, what should investors be worried about?

A lot of things, according to Sløk.

At the top of his list are tariffs, which he puts at a 90% probability of being implemented by the incoming Trump administration.

Trump threatened tariffs countless times during his campaign, and he ramped up those threats after winning the election in November, even lobbing them at two of the US's closest allies, Canada and Mexico.

Another top risk for the stock market next year is Nvidia reporting earnings that disappoint investors' "inflated expectations," Sløk said, ascribing a 90% probability of that occurring.

Such an earnings miss would be a big deal for markets, which count Nvidia as the second-largest company in the world by market cap. Investors got a small taste of what that could look like after Nvidia reported third-quarter results in late November.

While the AI-chip company beat earnings estimates, its guidance failed to meet Wall Street's loftiest expectations, resulting in a 10% sell-off in the company's stock price over the next week.

Upside risks Sløk has on his radar are a further acceleration in the US economy, the unleashing of bullish animal spirits among investors, and a boom in mergers and IPO activity. Such scenarios, he said, have a 75% to 85% chance of occurring.

But perhaps the biggest downside risk to the stock market in 2025 is that a rebound in inflation will spark the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. That would shock investors, as the market is pricing two interest-rate cuts in 2025.

Sløk assigned a 40% probability to a scenario in which "US inflation accelerates in Q1, driven higher by a strong economy, tariffs, restrictions on immigration, and seasonal factors."

He offered the same probability to the knock-on effects of that scenario, the Fed raising interest rates and the 10-year US Treasury yield jumping above 5% before the middle of the year.

Whether the economy will be resilient in 2025 remains to be seen, but investors can monitor Sløk's list of risks to gauge where the market might be headed next year.

• South Korea's President Yoon faces likely impeachment after a "botched coup" attempt, TS Lombard said.
• The firm predicts a new election could boost South Korea's economy and lead to friendlier relations with China.
• A Democratic People's Party win may also increase fiscal spending and improve GDP growth, TS Lombard said.

A knock-on effect of South Korea President Yoon Suk-yeol's "botched coup" attempt earlier this week could be a stronger economy, according to GlobalData TS Lombard.

In a Wednesday note, research analyst Rory Green said the martial law episode that unraveled earlier this week suggests President Yoon will be impeached and replaced soon.

"We think Yoon's position is untenable: impeachment (if not this week then soon) followed by fresh presidential elections is highly likely," Green said

President Yoon is on track to be the least popular president in Korean history, according to data from Gallup, cited by Green.

If Green's prediction proves accurate, the center-left Democratic People's Party (DPP) will likely field a presidential candidate who would win an imminent election.

And that could usher in a new wave of economic growth for South Korea, in part driven by the potential for friendlier relations between South Korea and China.

"A DPP president would increase fiscal expenditure boosting H2/25 activity and likely tilt foreign policy towards closer ties with Beijing and Pyongyang," Green explained.

Green said there is headroom for South Korea's economy to grow from its current GDP rate of an estimated 2.2%, which is below its average post-pandemic growth rate of 2.75%.

"A relatively quick political resolution would enable an emergency budget. More expansive fiscal spending in conjunction with another 50bps of policy rate cuts in H1/25 nudges up our GDP forecast to 2.1%," Green said.

Alternatively, Green said South Korea's economic growth rate would nudge lower if a presidential election is delayed past April.

According to the note, South Korea's parliament needs just nine more votes to secure the president's impeachment, assuming all 192 members of President Yoon's opposition party vote for impeachment.